X(Adopted child access to court file) EWFC 33 (9th September 2014)

[leclerc]

There was an article in the Law Gazzette that took my interest which was a case heard by the head of the Family Court Sir James Mumby in relation to access to the court file from and adoption in 1930. It's quite interesting as it relates to some of the law that is in place since 2002 Adoption and Children's act and the law in place prior to that time.

The article is at the following link: http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/law/lega...043964.article

The case law from Bailii is here: http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup...method=boolean

[PAWS]

Re: X(Adopted child access to court file) EWFC 33 (9th September 2014)

section 79(4)’s ‘exceptional circumstances’, the court (among other things)noted the observation of Roderic Wood J in FL v Registrar General [2010] EWHC3520 (Fam) that ‘the descendant of an adopted person could not, for the purpose of an application under section 79(4), be treated more favourably than acomplete stranger in construing the expression “exceptional circumstances”’.

Do not agree; a descendant of the adoptee is also a descendant of the biological parents. If your very DNA is made up of these people then you do have more rights than a complete stranger.

The court has a discretion whether to disclose information contained inits own file to the applicant

A SENSIBLE APPROACH

In this particular case I do think enough time has elapsed and all the main characters have died but I would still urge caution. This next paragraph however will cause concern for thousands of women:

on 29September, the government announced that: ‘Children, grandchildren and other relatives of adopted adults can now trace back through their ancestors’ lives –helping them to unearth their family history, discover more about their medical background and

reach out to long-lost relatives under new rules’, due to be effective by next month.

Discretion,discretion, discretion!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is essential that they ensure the biological parents are either deceased or informed before they pass on this information. They have earned that right –I sure as hell know I have.